To all the College of Arms and all others who may read this missive, from Birgitta Laurel, Sara Pelican, and Iago Wreath, greetings.

* From Laurel: June 2025 KWHSS

Setting up a Known World Heraldic Symposium for the coming summer, or winter, depending on where in the Known World one lives, has been a much more difficult task than usual. However, the dates are now set for June 13-15, 2025 and the event will be organised by the Kingdom of An Tir. Unfortunately, due to circumstances outside the control of the team organising the symposium this will have to be a virtual one. More information will be coming in the near future.

* From Laurel: Call for Bids for KWHSS 2026, Twice

For those considering bidding on the 2026 Known World Heraldic and Scribal Symposia, the deadline to have your bid entered into OSCAR is June 1, 2025. This deadline may be extended as needed, but we would prefer to be able to announce the bids' award sooner rather than later. We are asking for bids for both a virtual symposium in January and one in the physical world in the Northern Hemisphere summer. When preparing a bid for the latter, note that the SCA 60 year anniversary event is scheduled for June 29-July 6, 2026.

Please remember that bids posted to OSCAR are publicly readable. Because of this, any personal information, such as legal names, addresses, phone numbers, and email, should not be included in these bids without signed written permission. Such information as is necessary for the entire College of Arms to see should be posted as a comment after the bid is finalized; any identifying information that the Sovereigns might need should be included as a Sovereign Note.

Please send a copy of the full unredacted bid to Laurel at [email protected].

As a reminder, there is a KWHSS domain and web hosting space available on the SCA's servers. Please do not register a new domain.

There is some information available at https://heraldry.sca.org/kwhss/. You are, of course, welcome to contact Laurel with any questions.

* From Laurel: Heralds Extraordinary

In July 1981, Wilhelm von Schlüssel, Laurel King of Arms, instituted the rank of Herald Extraordinary. In his words, it "shall have no fixed duties, unless such shall be agreed upon by the holder and the Kingdom Principal Herald, but instead the holder of the rank shall be a senior member of the College who shall lend heraldic expertise as s/he sees fit." While the status of a Herald Extraordinary has been an honour from the start, it is also a rank within the College of Arms.

In the past, the College has been lax in keeping track of our Extraordinary members. For a long time Modar Neznanich, Volk Herald Extraordinary, kept an unofficial list, but earlier this autumn we started transferring the responsibility to where it actually belongs. Building on Modar's exceptional work Jeanne Marie Lacroix, Palimpsest Herald, has led a project to check and proofread the list, and we now agree it is as complete as the Laurel office can make it. It has therefore been published on the Laurel web site at https://heraldry.sca.org/extraordinary.html to augment the roster of members of the College of Arms in Ordinary that is available in OSCAR.

To keep the list up to date, as any roster should be, there should be a clear process for creating a Herald Extraordinary. Therefore, to reiterate and to some extent clarify earlier rulings,

1. The rank of Herald Extraordinary can only be given by a person who has direct authority to add a person to the College of Arms roster - in other words, either Laurel or the Principal Herald of the recipient's home kingdom. Whether Crown approval is required as well is left to kingdom traditions, as it has been.

2. The rank must be given as an individual act. In the past, there have been occasional policies at kingdom level that make it automatic for the completion of a term of office, but this is not in line with how either offices or honours are treated in this Society; the only exception are Royal Peerages explicitly specified in Corpora. Any policies that automatically grant the rank of Herald Extraordinary are null and void as of the date of this letter, while past creations under such policies are considered valid.

3. Any bestowals of the rank must be brought to the attention of Laurel, so that the roster of Heralds Extraordinary can be kept up to date. Likewise, any requests for corrections should be sent to Laurel.

We direct Palimpsest to prepare a Rules Letter to address these matters in the form of an Appendix to the Administrative Handbook.

* From Laurel: More Time to Correct Emblazons

As proposed on Palimpsest's September 15th Rules Letter, the Administrative Handbook V.B.2.h, Correction of Errors, has been revised to allow emblazons to be corrected at any time before the close of commentary if they do not affect the blazon or commenters' abilities to check for conflict and style issues. This change was approved by the Board of Directors at their January meeting and the updated wording will be available at https://heraldry.sca.org/admin.html#V.B within a few days.

* From Pelican: "Common Names of the Aristocracy in the Roman Empire During the 6th and 7th Centuries"

The article "Common Names of the Aristocracy in the Roman Empire During the 6th and 7th Centuries" (https://heraldry.sca.org/names/byzantine/early_byz_names.html) uses The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire(PLRE) as its source material. Submitters are reminded that the names in these sources are Latinized Greek names, which makes them particularly fitting for Byzantine-era Latin but not for Greek names. Names in PLRE do not follow the patterns or constructions set out in Ursula George's "Simple Guide for Greek Names". They instead follow the rules in SENA Appendix A for the formation of Latinized bynames (https://heraldry.sca.org/sena.html#AppendixALatinized).

* From Pelican: On the twin Greek names Helias and Elias

There has been some discussion around the twin Greek names Helias and Elias, where the only difference is smooth breathing versus a rough breathing mark before the initial vowel, in this case eta, leading to two different transliterations. The rough breathing version is transliterated as the feminine name Helias, while the smooth breathing version is transliterated as the masculine name Elias. Starting July 2025, we will no longer register Helias as a Greek masculine name. Helias remains a registerable masculine name in other languages including French, Occitan, and English, in which it is attested. We also direct Palimpsest to update "Standard Source Errata" noting the distinction between the masculine and feminine names in Bardas Xiphias's article.

* From Pelican: SENA Appendix D and Tone/Pitch Markings

SENA Appendix D, Acceptable Transliteration Systems for Non-Latin Script, is updated as proposed in Palimpsest's September 15th Rules Letters to allow, but not require, the use of tone and pitch markings. The revised wording will be available at https://heraldry.sca.org/sena.html#AppendixD within a few days.

* From Pelican: SENA PN4D1 and Sovereign Rulers

As proposed on Palimpsest's September 15th Rules Letter, the second paragraph of SENA PN4D1, "Non-SCA People Protected from Presumption", is revised to clarify when sovereign rulers are protected. Legendary sovereigns who are only documented as legendary figures are not protected as sovereign rulers but may be protected as fictional characters under the fifth paragraph of PN4D1. The revised wording will be available at https://heraldry.sca.org/sena.html#PN4D1 within a few days.

* From Pelican: Alternate Titles - Japanese

The discussion on the September 30 Letter of Pends and Discussion on Japanese titles generated a lot of commentary. We wish to thank those who took the time to comment and to provide additional research on this issue, including, but not limited to Saito Takauji, and Yamanouchi Eidou. Thanks also go to Elisabetta Pelican Emerita, and Jeanne Marie Palimpsest for their behind the scenes work on this, that made this possible.

The proposed titles included Tennou as the masculine title for the rank of crown. This is not accepted as the same kanji also means "divine". The other titles and forms of address for Crown and Coronet are accepted as original proposed on Palimpsest's April 21, 2024 Rules Letter.

The letter presented several options that modified the original proposal for Japanese titles. Based on commentary and the governing documents of the SCA, option 4 is accepted. While this title structure does not map exactly to historical practices in Japan, the SCA rank structure as a whole is difficult to map to any historical structure. Option 4 most closely matches established SCA rank structure and how ranks are treated in other languages. This option treats court and landed baronies as the same rank and treats an award of arms (AoA) and grant of arms (GoA) as the same rank for purposes of titles. The associated forms of address from the original proposal are also accepted.

With the exception of crown and coronet, the masculine and feminine titles and forms of address are the same. The accepted titles and forms of address (shown in brackets) are:

• Crown - Chuuguu (feminine), [Heika] (masculine and feminine)

• Coronet (masculine) - Shinnou (heir), Ou (territorial), [Denka] (heir and territorial)

• Coronet (feminine) - Naishinnou (heir), Joou (territorial), [Hidenka] (heir and territorial)

• Duchy - Ich-i, [Geika]

• County - Ni-i, [Kakka]

• Viscounty - San-i, [Kakka]

• Peerage Order - Shi-i, [Hakase]

• Barony - Roku-i, [Kakka]

• AoA or GoA - Go-i, [Kakka]

In addition, the suffixes -sama and -dono, as generic titles of respect, are appropriate forms of address for any rank.

The updates to the List of Alternate Titles will be available at https://heraldry.sca.org/titles.html#Japanese within a few days.

* From Pelican: Protected City Names -- Santa Barbara and Saint Barbara

We are at this time, explicitly overturning the precedent that holds that the saint name Saint Barbara presumes upon the name of the city Santa Barbara [Bright Hills, Barony of, 07/2003, R-Atlantia]. This precedent was decided prior to SENA's revised rules for determining conflicts and presumption. Under SENA, Santa Barbara has one more syllable and at least two changed letters from Saint Barbara, thus making the two name phrases clear under SENA NPN3C. As such, the two name elements cannot be confused and one should not presume upon the other.

* From Wreath: Claims of Power

A submission this month caused us to consider how SENA A6G, Claims of Power, is applied. The rule says, "A combination of name(s) and armorial elements may not contain an unmistakable claim of superhuman abilities, magical powers, or divine origin. In general a single allusion will not be considered a claim of powers, though it may be obtrusively modern under section A3F3." One of the examples included in SENAA6G states: with that rule is "Similarly, someone with the given name Tatsume or surname Ryuuzouji, which both incorporate the kanji for "dragon", could registered Sable, an East Asian dragon passant argent as it is a single allusion to their name. However, Sable, an East Asian dragon passant and in chief three clouds argent, is a claim to be one of the Dragon Kings who are noted for controlling weather and bringing rain and thus is not registerable."

Given the discussion, we have come to believe that the example in SENA is too restrictive. We direct Palimpsest to open a Rules Letter for discussion of changes to this example.

* From Wreath: Glossary of Terms Table 5 Updates

As proposed on Palimpsest's September 29th Rules Letter, the title of this table is changed to Conventional SCA Default Postures and Orientations and the introduction is expanded to briefly discuss the orientation of charges on charges (or in chief).

The September 29th Rules Letter looked at charges beginning with the letters A, B, and C. A number of these charges have been blazoned as if there were a default posture or orientation even if that orientation wasn't specified in the Glossary of Terms. Other defaults were specified but no precedent actually ruled that those were the defaults. Finally, we are modifying the defaults for some charges. All of these charges will show this Cover Letter as the reference for the default. The affected charges are:

• A-Frame Plumb Line - Palewise, opening and plummet to base

• Abacus - Fesswise, with the smaller portion of the abacus to chief. When palewise, the smaller portion is to sinister.

• Angel - Affronty, wings displayed. When statant to dexter or to sinister the wings are addorsed.

• Arrow Fletching - Palewise, nock to chief

• Arrowhead - Palewise, point to base

• Axe - Palewise, head to chief. The direction the blade faces is an optionally blazonable detail that does not contribute to difference. An axe blazoned as reversed is palewise with its blade to sinister. An axe fesswise reversed has its head to sinister. When on a chief or a fess, a single axe defaults to fesswise and multiple axes default to palewise.

• Badger - Statant

• Barnacles, Pair of - Palewise, hinge to chief. When spread fesswise they are blazoned as extended.

• Basilisk - Statant to dexter, wings addorsed. No difference is granted between a basilisk statant (with its two legs on the ground) and one erect (with its two legs raised).

• Bellows - Palewise, spout to base; when fesswise, spout to sinister.

• Bird - Generally close; see specific birds as well. The most common exceptions are eagle (displayed), hummingbird (rising), owl (close guardant), and swan (rousant/rising).

• Bone - Palewise

• Book, closed - Fesswise, spine to chief. When palewise whether the spine is to dexter or to sinister is an optionally blazonable artistic detail.

• Book, open - Spine palewise

• Bow - Palewise, string to sinister; when fesswise, string is to base. The default applies to both weapons and musical bows.

• Broach, Embroiderer's - Palewise, forked end to chief

• Broadarrow - Palewise, point to base

• Candle - Palewise

• Catapult/Trebuchet - "Rest" position with the lever arm bendwise sinister, with the counterweight in dexter base and the basket (or sling) in sinister chief. When blazoned as loaded the arm is horizontal or bendwise, ready to release its load. There is a blazonable difference between the default orientation and loaded but not a DC.

• Cockatrice - Statant to dexter, wings addorsed. No difference is granted between a cockatrice statant (with its two legs on the ground) and one erect (with its two legs raised).

• Comet - Palewise, head to chief. When fesswise the head is to dexter. The terms shooting star and falling star are sometimes used for a comet inverted.

• Crane - Close

• Crossbow - Palewise, bow to chief, cocked

• Cup - Palewise, mouth to chief

• Rib Bone - Fesswise. Rib bones may be borne singly or in pairs. While often issuant from flanks, that fact must be blazoned.

• Salt Barrel - Palewise

Based on existing precedent, a few charges are added to the table (with the relevant reference). In addition to these changes, a number of cross-references are added. For other charges, references to existing precedents are added as proposed by Palimpsest. The updated table will be available at https://heraldry.sca.org/coagloss.html#default within a few days. Armory has been reblazoned as necessary on this LoAR.

* From Wreath: Glossary of Terms Update

As proposed on Palimpsest's September 29th Rules Letter, Table 5 and Table 7 are added to the cross-references listed under Default in the Glossary of Terms. The updates will be available at https://heraldry.sca.org/coagloss.html in a few days.

* Society Pages

Carlos Blanco el Barbero, former Pennon Herald, passed unexpectedly away on November 24, 2024. Carlos was recognized for his heraldic service in 2016 with a Burning Trumpet, and then a few months later for his service to the Kingdom, of which heraldry was a contributing factor, by being inducted into the Order of the Bough of Meridies, at the time an Order of High Merit, now a Grant-level Order. He leaves behind a large and varied community of friends, chosen family, and a partner. His final act of service, as an organ donor, will benefit up to 70 other people.

Andreas von Meißen, Palmer Herald, was elevated to the Order of Defense at Caerthen 12th Night on 4 January 2025, after being offered admittance by King Hawkrill and Queen Adrien of the Outlands at Kingdom A&S Collegium in September.

On 11 January 2025 at Their final Court, Eirik and Brynhildr, King and Queen of An Tir, added Matilda Stoyle to the Order of the Laurel. Among her many and varied interests from birding to music, Matilda is Red Tree Pursuivant emerita in the Barony of Madrone with a keen eye toward clean, simple armory. Her oath was conducted in Anglo-Norman.

Later that same day, Ana de la Sara, Dexter Gauntlet Herald (Precedence) emerita of the kingdom of An Tir, was crowned Queen of An Tir. Her Majesty is well known in the kingdom for her promotion of armorial display, having created a number of silk banners over the years.

Please send information about happenings to major heralds and major happenings to all heralds to Laurel, so that it can be published here.

* Send What to Whom

Letters of Intent, Comment, Response, Correction, et cetera are to be posted to the OSCAR online system. No paper copies need be sent. All submission forms plus documentation, including petitions, must be uploaded to the OSCAR packet for that letter. For armory, only colored forms are required.

Cheques or money orders for submissions, payable to "SCA Inc.-College of Arms" are to be sent to Trent Le Clair, 928 Frazier Dr, Walla Walla, WA 99362.

Send roster changes and corrections to Laurel. College of Arms members may also request a copy of the current roster from Laurel.

To subscribe to the mailings of the LoAR, please see the bottom of https://heraldry.sca.org/heraldry/lists.html#lists for more instructions.

For all administrative matters, please contact Laurel.

* Scheduling

Items listed below in square brackets have not been scheduled yet. For information about future scheduling, please review the status table located on the Web at https://oscar.sca.org/index.php?action=137.

The December Laurel decisions were made at the Pelican meeting held on Sunday, December 15, 2024 and the Wreath meeting held on Sunday, December 8, 2024. These meetings considered the following letters of intent: Calontir (03 Sep, 2024), An Tir (07 Sep, 2024), Atlantia (08 Sep, 2024), Meridies (08 Sep, 2024), Gleann Abhann (15 Sep, 2024), Palimpsest Rules Letter (15 Sep, 2024), Artemisia (18 Sep, 2024), Laurel LoItUP (20 Sep, 2024), Middle (22 Sep, 2024), Avacal (25 Sep, 2024), Ansteorra (26 Sep, 2024), Æthelmearc (28 Sep, 2024), An Tir (29 Sep, 2024), Palimpsest Rules Letter (29 Sep, 2024), West (29 Sep, 2024), Atlantia (30 Sep, 2024), Caid (30 Sep, 2024), Drachenwald (30 Sep, 2024), Ealdormere (30 Sep, 2024), East (30 Sep, 2024), Laurel LoPaD (30 Sep, 2024), Lochac (30 Sep, 2024), Outlands (30 Sep, 2024), Laurel LoPfR (24 Oct, 2024). All commentary, responses, and rebuttals should have been entered into OSCAR by Saturday, November 30, 2024.

The January Laurel decisions were made at the Pelican meeting held on Saturday, January 11, 2025 and the Wreath meeting held on Sunday, January 12, 2025. These meetings considered the following letters of intent: Ealdormere (01 Oct, 2024), Calontir (03 Oct, 2024), Laurel LoPaD (03 Oct, 2024), Meridies (10 Oct, 2024), An Tir (11 Oct, 2024), Gleann Abhann (13 Oct, 2024), Artemisia (17 Oct, 2024), Ansteorra (28 Oct, 2024), Ealdormere (28 Oct, 2024), Lochac (29 Oct, 2024), Atenveldt (30 Oct, 2024), Drachenwald (30 Oct, 2024), Outlands (30 Oct, 2024), Palimpsest Rules Letter (30 Oct, 2024), Æthelmearc (31 Oct, 2024), East (31 Oct, 2024), Middle (31 Oct, 2024), Palimpsest Rules Letter (31 Oct, 2024), Trimaris (31 Oct, 2024), Laurel LoPfR (26 Nov, 2024). All commentary, responses, and rebuttals should have been entered into OSCAR by Tuesday, December 31, 2024.

The February Laurel decisions will be made at the Pelican meeting held on Sunday, February 9, 2025 and the Wreath meeting held on Sunday, February 16, 2025. These meetings will consider the following letters of intent: Calontir (03 Nov, 2024), An Tir (04 Nov, 2024), Atlantia (04 Nov, 2024), Gleann Abhann (10 Nov, 2024), Caid (11 Nov, 2024), West (11 Nov, 2024), Meridies (14 Nov, 2024), An Tir (18 Nov, 2024), An Tir (19 Nov, 2024), Æthelmearc (25 Nov, 2024), Outlands (26 Nov, 2024), Avacal (27 Nov, 2024), Middle (27 Nov, 2024), Atenveldt (29 Nov, 2024), Ealdormere (29 Nov, 2024), Laurel LoPaD (29 Nov, 2024), Ansteorra (30 Nov, 2024), Caid (30 Nov, 2024), Drachenwald (30 Nov, 2024), East (30 Nov, 2024), Laurel (30 Nov, 2024), Lochac (30 Nov, 2024), Middle (30 Nov, 2024), Palimpsest Rules Letter (30 Nov, 2024), Laurel LoPfR (13 Jan, 2025). All commentary, responses, and rebuttals should have been entered into OSCAR by Friday, January 31, 2025.

Not all letters of intent may be considered when they are originally scheduled on this cover letter. The date of posting of the LoI, date of receipt of the Laurel packet, or other factors may delay consideration of certain letters of intent. Additionally, some letters of intent received may not have been scheduled because the administrative requirements (receipt of the forms packet, receipt of the necessary fees, et cetera) have not yet been met.

REMINDER: Until all administrative requirements are met, the letter may not be scheduled.

Be assured that I remain

In service

Birgitta Lulli
Laurel Queen of Arms

Created at 2025-02-04T19:44:28